'the quality of mercy is not strained'

[subtle1science]

 

The Doctor: If I don't like your plan, it will end.
Mr. Finch: Fascinating. Your people were peaceful to the point of indolence. You seem to be something new. Would you declare war on us, Doctor?
The Doctor: I'm so old now. I used to have so much mercy. You get one warning. That was it.

Caught the end of "School Reunion" on BBCA yesterday.....

Comments

[subtle1science]

Sarah Jane still had to be made pitiful: cow eyes at the Doctor, and the confession that she'd never had any relationship after traveling with the Doctor, and now, of course, being in her dotage, she'd always be alone (except for that annoying metal dog)....Talk about breaking the suspension of disbelief: intelligent, talented, beautiful Sarah Jane is unwanted?

Yeeeeaaahhhhhhhh. Right. Especially up against Rose, who's difficult to take on any given day, but who really comes across as more than a bit of a bimbo in this episode (especially when she gets smart because she got some of the oil on her, or she ate some, or whatever; and then she can't do math again by the end of the episode....).

Good point about Rosaline in "Vampires"....a villain, but one with a reason--and smart and confident. And, along with Amy, we also get clever, brave Isabella in that episode. Only the transformed vampire girls are one dimensional--because they have been changed into something from what they were (Isabella gives us an idea of what the real girls might've been like).

I also caught the end of "Tooth and Claw"--another dismal portrayal of an older woman....Queen Victoria, who suddenly becomes a shrill harridan at the end of the episode; in fact, perhaps a little insane as she threatens the Doctor's life and sets up TW to persecute him...... Someone send Rusty a memo: the 1950s were so long ago..................

[suo_gan]

The intrepid Sarah Jane, dependent on the Doctor? No bleepin' way, although I almost admire Rusty for once again working cow eyes into one of his episodes. I could see where she would treasure the time spent with the Doctor, but never to the point where it overcast her whole life and rendered her an object of pity.

My mind reels.

I could, however, be very persuaded that Rose would spend the rest of her life mourning her time with the Doctor, especially after haunting the last two seasons with her mournful, accusatory cow eyes. The Doctor took two women away: one a journalist and the other an inexperienced teenager. The journalist grew and, while she didn't want to have the Doctor leave, she adjusted well, thank you. The other remained a moony teenager with a crush and a ersatz Doctor as a consolation prize. That I could believe.

Rosaline is a villain who became a villain out of circumstances, which the Doctor recognizes but never condones. And yet, he can connect on several levels with her, including that whole flirty thing, because she is attractive, and the Doctor is no humanoid snob. I think she presents the kind of problem the Doctor loves: a way to solve her people's quandary without hurting humans. But she doesn't trust him, and her fall comes because of that lack of trust. But she is a match, able to speak to the Doctor equal to equal, which would have been practically unheard of with Rusty. Amy and Isabella are brave and resourceful, and they don't need magic oil: it comes from within.

Jesus, magic oil. What an insult.

[subtle1science]

Even the effect of travelling with the Doctor is dealt with in "Vampires"--the experience would be life-changing; of course it would forever have an impact.....But the idea that Sarah Jane would be this useless, forever lonely old lady....?

What?!?

*sigh* Just a reminder of why I so hated "School Reunion" the first time I ever saw it.

[subtle1science]

At the time, a lot of fans loved Queen Victoria and thoroughly approved of the slap-down she gave to Ten and Rose, and still do for that matter. My feelings were somewhere between yours and theirs; I thought the two of them were obnoxious in the extreme, but Victoria’s reaction was just that - a reaction, not something carefully thought through. After all, despite their gleeful and callous behaviour, both the Doctor and Rose worked throughout to save lives, and really did nothing to put lives at risk. The banishment the queen placed on them seemed to me to be a result of the shock of what she’d lived through; it would've been a better move on her part to talk to them privately about their behaviour. Whether that would have worked is debatable, but given how the pair of them just brushed off the banishment, it wouldn’t have been any worse a strategy; and a lot of havoc in the future could have been averted.

Diona the Lurker

[subtle1science]

I found the whole sequence at the end to be pretty bizarre.

Ten and Rose were obnoxious and rude: I don't have much tolerance for Rose at any time, but I had a strong urge to slap both her and Ten at the knighting ceremony.

Victoria came across as unbalanced--one moment knighting Ten, then pitching a hissy fit, sounding quite high strung and unstrung. And both Rose and Ten reacted like middle schoolers who had successfully tormented a substitute teacher.

[subtle1science]

This is OT, but I just spotted the following and thought you might find it interesting:

Matt Smith has revealed Doctor Who would prefer an intelligent game of chess to a naughty romp.
The current Timelord is asked if he thinks his character has ever had a passionate encounter in the Tardis on tonight’s episode of Channel 4’s Chatty Man.

He tells host Alan Carr: “No. The Doc’s idea of an orgy is playing chess with an ostrich. His brain doesn’t work in that way. He would find it (sex) weird and peculiar. He finds women peculiar. He is quite asexual.”

That’s certainly opposed to what a great deal of fandom think about Eleven. I wonder if he thinks he has to say that because of DW being regarded as a children’s programme?

Diona the Lurker

[subtle1science]

Smith's certainly not playing it as asexual.....

There's plenty of smouldering and flirting going on--as well as awkward flailing, too....With Amy, it was quite understandable: his reaction was based on his seeing her as Amelia. With River in the Stormcage, he was caught completely off guard.

However, he was quite happy to have *kissy fac* with River, according to the end of "A Good Man..."

A kind of funny consideration: anyone and anything with whom the Doctor would have sex would be an alien--not of his kind. That puts a spin on things....

[subtle1science]

Actually, what threw me about Matt’s quote is the bit about finding women peculiar. Umm, why? Human men are often vocal about finding women strange (or worse, unfortunately), but the Doctor is someone who, even when he wasn’t the last of his kind, probably found everyone peculiar, including, let’s face it, his own species (people seem to forget that nearly all of his fellow Gallifreyans didn’t understand him, and frankly, treated him like shit. If they all suddenly returned, they would probably keep treating him like shit). He may love the universe and its many and varied species, but they’re all strange and marvellous to him. So why single out women as ‘peculiar’? I’m not sure Matt has thought that one through, frankly.

Diona the Lurker

[subtle1science]

Yeah--that really doesn't sound like a thoughtful analysis, but rather more like a funny throw-away....

Eleven does come across as rather proper and private (as when he's tweaked for blushing easily in "A Good Man..."), but he's neither prim nor a prude. One of his best reactions is in "Vampires," when he realizes that the vampire girls are a breeding program: "Ew...I mean, I've been around, but that's....Ew."

[subtle1science]

It’s hard to believe, given what we’ve seen of him, that Eleven isn’t a sexual being. He might sometimes be reserved, but I don’t get the impression that he’d hold off if he was genuinely interested in someone (Amy excepted).

Whenever I think of VoV, I think of Steven Moffat’s comment, “the funniest thing ever in Doctor Who is Matt Smith trying to contain his enthusiasm in the face of all those vampire girls.”:)

Diona the Lurker

[subtle1science]

Eleven checks out a passing Venetian woman when he steps out of the TARDIS in "Vampires"; he also smoulders with Roseanna, the fish!mom. The stripper doesn't register with him at all--that custom seems to go right past him.....

He certainly can get flustered easily or miss clues entirely--it gives the sense of some cultural differences. On the other hand, he's good enough for Marilyn Monroe.... ;)